Just back from the Dream

Hello! My wife, myself and 2 othercouples just got back from the Jan. 14th sailing on the Carnival Dream. Given how much I enjoy reading the reviews from others, I figured I'd take ashot at doing one myself. I'll try to cover everything that I usually findvaluable, but please don't hesitate to let me know if there are specificquestions you'd like answered. Before I say anything else, this was awonderful trip, no vacation is perfect, and I'll detail the few hiccups, butoverall it was awesome and all 6 of us agreed we'd love to do it again. Here we go:

Embarkation:

The port took about 15 minutes byUber to get to from our Airbnb in the French Quarter. We had the 11-1130check-in time. No one even looked at our check-in time until the veryend, after we had our Sail and Sign cards. At that point, if you were 'ontime' they put you in the next available open zone. If you were early,you were seated a few zones back. We were on the ship with our firstdrink in hand just after noon. So under 90 minutes from curb to a bar onthe lido deck. It seemed even faster, no complaints at all.

The Ship:

Spotless, or as close as one can reasonably hope for. Seriously our entire group noted throughout the week how well kept the shipwas. There were crewmembers constantly cleaning, polishing, scrubbing,etc. Every crewmember we encountered was polite andfriendly. The bar staff from poolside to lobby and everywhere else washelpful and worked hard. Some bars, suchas Red Frog’s Rum Bar and the Lobby Bar always seemed well staffed but others,such as the aft pool bar and the Alchemy Bar always seemed a bitunderstaffed.

Food:

We did the Sea day Brunch, BlueIguana's breakfast burritos and the buffet for breakfast. The brunch wasgreat, although I was a bit too hungover to enjoy the banter of ourtablemates . The breakfast burritos wereoutstanding! We waited until our next to last full day to try them andthat's one of my few regrets of the cruise. The buffet breakfast wasenjoyable, nothing too memorable but I was neverdisappointed.

For lunch I tried, in order of what I liked; theMongolian Wok (3 times), Guys burgers (once), Tandoori (twice), Pig and AnchorBBQ. We also ate off the ship in two of our ports (I know that's morethan 7 lunches but we're on vacation, why not have multiple lunches somedays?). The rest of our group tried Pasta Bella and they said it wasfine, but just fine. That's what I thought about Pig and Anchor, thesides were good, the meats were meh and being outside on the Lanai, everythingwas cool if not cold by the time you started eating. The line for theMongolian Wok was silly, it usually took 15-20 minutes, but it was worth thewait. Plus it was cool seeing those guys work. It's reallyimpressive to watch. For dinner, we ate in the main dining room all butone night.

We had YTD and after the first night we requested the serverwe had that first night every single evening. Big shout out to Arfirst,she's an awesome server! For those wondering, our group of 6, was rarelythere for over 90 minutes, and we were in no rush at all. We ordered tonsof food, usually 3 or 4 courses plus dessert and some items for the table toshare. Our only gripe about the MDR service was that instead of bringingthe food one course at a time, each person got 2 or 3 items all at once, thenentrees. It's a minor thing and we attributed it to 2 things; 1- tryingto be efficient and accommodate the general expectation that people want to getin and out, 2 - the team serving us had 4 tables of 6-10 people. 25-35people is a lot of people for one team of servers to wait on so that was oneway to make it more manageable.

The one night we didn't eat in the diningroom we ate in the Steakhouse. Our group was divided on the experience,some saying it was a highlight but I found it disappointing. The fooditself was better than the MDR, but not significantly. Most of mydisappointment came from the service. It says clearly on the menu thatadditional entrees will require an additional charge, what it doesn't say butour server curtly told us, you are limited to one app and one salad (he waswilling to allow us to skip a salad and get a second app). We were tryingto order one of everything, but an app, a soup and a salad was our originalplan, and this was unexpected as I've never been to a specialty restaurant thatwas so strict. Also, when they sent someone in our party the wrong app,they argued with her before replacing it. Finally, they made a big dealabout how many bottles of water they were opening, which was particularlystrange since they asked at the beginning if all 6 of us had the Cheers package(we did). Overall, not a bad experience but just not the outstanding onewe've come to expect from the specialty restaurants.

Stateroom:

My wife and I had an Aft balcony ondeck 8 (8470), and we loved it. It seemed bigger than a standard balconyand the Aft view is one that I love. Our room steward, Ari, was verygood, but clearly overworked. He had every room on the port side of the shipfrom the aft elevators back to ours. We had twice a day service and henever complained and always got to our room but we could tell he stretched bythe number of rooms. Our room was clean from the moment we were on theship until we left and have no complaints other than it was a touch warmer thanwe like at night, even with the curtains shut.

Shows:

We went to a handful and I will sayFlick is one of the coolest main theater shows that I’ve ever seen. Interesting story and incredible specialeffects; really, really worth seeing. Wesaw multiple comedians and they were ok, except for Manny Olivera. You’re either going to love him or beappalled. I loved him, he’s raunchy andspends half of his set out in the crowd joking with (or at) people. He never gets too person or spends too muchtime on someone that it becomes uncomfortable but I could easily see someonebeing upset with his show. Not me, I sawall 3 of his 18+ plus shows.

Ports:

Roatan – We did the Carnival JungleATV and beach break tour. It rained thatmorning and everything was muddy, perfect for ATV-ing. We spent about 90 minutes on the ATVs andthen 2 hours at a nearby beach. Thebeach is at a resort that is clearly in the process of being redone but it wasa really fun excursion.

Belize – We did the Carnival LamaniRuins and Scenic River Boat Tour. Veryglad we did this through Carnival as our tour ran over, along with a fewothers, so we were on the final tender which they held for us. The tour was fun but we spent about 2 hourstotal on buses and the river boat portion wasn’t a scenic tour. It was 20 minutes on a speed boat flying fromwhere the bus drops you off to the ruins. The ride there was fun and wild, the ride back our group had to splitbecause they had 2 smaller boats, that ride was terrifying. Our boat’s, ummm, “captain” stopped torebalance the boat after we hit a wave and shifted mid-air. Seriously, terrifying. Other than that, the Ruins were awesome andI’m glad we did that excursion, but I won’t do it again.

Cozumel – Went to Mr. Sanchos. We had ordered tickets ahead of time and itwas a good thing, our taxi driver said there were 7 boats in port and they wereprobably sold out. Good drinks, partyatmosphere and the menu food was good. Didn’t eat the buffet because people were actually grabbing stuff withtheir bare hands, ew. Plenty of entertaining people watching everywhere.

Smoke:

I know even mentioning the word is the third rail of CruiseCritic but I’d be remiss if I didn’t address it. It was truly only an issue in 2 places. The first was in the stateroom of one of theother couples we traveled with. Thatroom smelled like it was a smoking room. It was the first thing you’d smell when you entered and when they triedto open the balcony door to air it out, smoke from nearby balconies made itworse. They immediately alerted guestservices and to Carnival’s credit, they gave them ship board credit, theyshampooed the carpet, they sent an HVAC worker to try to work some magic and onthe next to last day when people left the ship in Cozumel they offered to movethem, but by then the hassle of moving for a day and a half just wasn’t worthit. Carnival really did try to make thesituation better but at the end of the day, they had to spend a week breathingsmoke at night because people in the room before them and their neighborsrefused to respect the rule of no smoking in staterooms or on balconies. The other place smoke was an issue was Deck5. It was pretty bad for the majority ofthat deck. The casino was thick withsmoke, which also meant that the Ocean Plaza area was really smoky. The Alchemy bar, in the far corner of theOcean Plaza, wasn’t too bad, but for some reason there was a sewage-like smellin the back of the Alchemy bar. I don’twant to spend too much time on smoke but just be aware, if you’re sensitive,avoid Deck 5, mid-ship.

Cheers:

We all did Cheers and there are a few things I’ll note. First, at the end of every dinner in the MDR,our server brought each of us a big, 1.5L, bottle of water. And we saw plenty of other people gettingthem as well. It was a really nicetouch. Also, only a few times I went toa bar with both my card and my wife’s. Inever had a problem getting a drink for her. I saw bartenders ask to have a cardholder present, but in those casesthe person was ordering for a group of people with 3+cards in hand or orderinga beer with one card and a shot with the other. No one in our group was ever cut off or hit our limit but a few times,late night, a server or bartender would drop off a drink and mention, “you’vegot one left”. That’s a really niceheads-up.

Debarkation:

A bit of a cluster and Carnival put one of our bags in zone25 instead of 5. Other than that it wasjust a sea of people getting off at once. CBP looked at our passports and said welcome back, that’s it. We had a Carnival transfer and we have TSAprecheck so ship to gate took almost 2 hours exactly, not bad.

I think that’s about everything, please feel free to let meknow if you have any questions. Otherwise, I’ll go back to wallowing in the post-cruise blues.

Thanks for the good report.

Thanks for the review. Good to know that getting to the airport was not a lengthy process.

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Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review! I've been looking into booking on either the new Horizon or a ship in the Dream class- your review is very helpful!

Thanks for the review/report.

What a nice review! I enjoyed reading about your perspective of so many facets of your experience on the Dream.

Thank you for posting.

Thanks we are going on the Dream in 40 days. Nice to hear it is in good shape and you had good service.

We are on the Dream now. Really enjoying the cruise with one exception. We are also on deck 8 but far forward. First night at sea the ship had a bad “shudder” at times that kept us awake most of the night. Once or twice a minute it felt like we were hitting a speed bump full on that would shake our entire room. So far, the second night we’ve not felt it very much. Hoping for a better night.

Hello! My wife, myself and 2 othercouples just got back from the Jan. 14th sailing on the Carnival Dream. Given how much I enjoy reading the reviews from others, I figured I'd take ashot at doing one myself. I'll try to cover everything that I usually findvaluable, but please don't hesitate to let me know if there are specificquestions you'd like answered. Before I say anything else, this was awonderful trip, no vacation is perfect, and I'll detail the few hiccups, butoverall it was awesome and all 6 of us agreed we'd love to do it again. Here we go:

Embarkation:

The port took about 15 minutes byUber to get to from our Airbnb in the French Quarter. We had the 11-1130check-in time. No one even looked at our check-in time until the veryend, after we had our Sail and Sign cards. At that point, if you were 'ontime' they put you in the next available open zone. If you were early,you were seated a few zones back. We were on the ship with our firstdrink in hand just after noon. So under 90 minutes from curb to a bar onthe lido deck. It seemed even faster, no complaints at all.

The Ship:

Spotless, or as close as one can reasonably hope for. Seriously our entire group noted throughout the week how well kept the shipwas. There were crewmembers constantly cleaning, polishing, scrubbing,etc. Every crewmember we encountered was polite andfriendly. The bar staff from poolside to lobby and everywhere else washelpful and worked hard. Some bars, suchas Red Frog’s Rum Bar and the Lobby Bar always seemed well staffed but others,such as the aft pool bar and the Alchemy Bar always seemed a bitunderstaffed.

Food:

We did the Sea day Brunch, BlueIguana's breakfast burritos and the buffet for breakfast. The brunch wasgreat, although I was a bit too hungover to enjoy the banter of ourtablemates . The breakfast burritos wereoutstanding! We waited until our next to last full day to try them andthat's one of my few regrets of the cruise. The buffet breakfast wasenjoyable, nothing too memorable but I was neverdisappointed.

For lunch I tried, in order of what I liked; theMongolian Wok (3 times), Guys burgers (once), Tandoori (twice), Pig and AnchorBBQ. We also ate off the ship in two of our ports (I know that's morethan 7 lunches but we're on vacation, why not have multiple lunches somedays?). The rest of our group tried Pasta Bella and they said it wasfine, but just fine. That's what I thought about Pig and Anchor, thesides were good, the meats were meh and being outside on the Lanai, everythingwas cool if not cold by the time you started eating. The line for theMongolian Wok was silly, it usually took 15-20 minutes, but it was worth thewait. Plus it was cool seeing those guys work. It's reallyimpressive to watch. For dinner, we ate in the main dining room all butone night.

We had YTD and after the first night we requested the serverwe had that first night every single evening. Big shout out to Arfirst,she's an awesome server! For those wondering, our group of 6, was rarelythere for over 90 minutes, and we were in no rush at all. We ordered tonsof food, usually 3 or 4 courses plus dessert and some items for the table toshare. Our only gripe about the MDR service was that instead of bringingthe food one course at a time, each person got 2 or 3 items all at once, thenentrees. It's a minor thing and we attributed it to 2 things; 1- tryingto be efficient and accommodate the general expectation that people want to getin and out, 2 - the team serving us had 4 tables of 6-10 people. 25-35people is a lot of people for one team of servers to wait on so that was oneway to make it more manageable.

The one night we didn't eat in the diningroom we ate in the Steakhouse. Our group was divided on the experience,some saying it was a highlight but I found it disappointing. The fooditself was better than the MDR, but not significantly. Most of mydisappointment came from the service. It says clearly on the menu thatadditional entrees will require an additional charge, what it doesn't say butour server curtly told us, you are limited to one app and one salad (he waswilling to allow us to skip a salad and get a second app). We were tryingto order one of everything, but an app, a soup and a salad was our originalplan, and this was unexpected as I've never been to a specialty restaurant thatwas so strict. Also, when they sent someone in our party the wrong app,they argued with her before replacing it. Finally, they made a big dealabout how many bottles of water they were opening, which was particularlystrange since they asked at the beginning if all 6 of us had the Cheers package(we did). Overall, not a bad experience but just not the outstanding onewe've come to expect from the specialty restaurants.

Stateroom:

My wife and I had an Aft balcony ondeck 8 (8470), and we loved it. It seemed bigger than a standard balconyand the Aft view is one that I love. Our room steward, Ari, was verygood, but clearly overworked. He had every room on the port side of the shipfrom the aft elevators back to ours. We had twice a day service and henever complained and always got to our room but we could tell he stretched bythe number of rooms. Our room was clean from the moment we were on theship until we left and have no complaints other than it was a touch warmer thanwe like at night, even with the curtains shut.

Shows:

We went to a handful and I will sayFlick is one of the coolest main theater shows that I’ve ever seen. Interesting story and incredible specialeffects; really, really worth seeing. Wesaw multiple comedians and they were ok, except for Manny Olivera. You’re either going to love him or beappalled. I loved him, he’s raunchy andspends half of his set out in the crowd joking with (or at) people. He never gets too person or spends too muchtime on someone that it becomes uncomfortable but I could easily see someonebeing upset with his show. Not me, I sawall 3 of his 18+ plus shows.

Ports:

Roatan – We did the Carnival JungleATV and beach break tour. It rained thatmorning and everything was muddy, perfect for ATV-ing. We spent about 90 minutes on the ATVs andthen 2 hours at a nearby beach. Thebeach is at a resort that is clearly in the process of being redone but it wasa really fun excursion.

Belize – We did the Carnival LamaniRuins and Scenic River Boat Tour. Veryglad we did this through Carnival as our tour ran over, along with a fewothers, so we were on the final tender which they held for us. The tour was fun but we spent about 2 hourstotal on buses and the river boat portion wasn’t a scenic tour. It was 20 minutes on a speed boat flying fromwhere the bus drops you off to the ruins. The ride there was fun and wild, the ride back our group had to splitbecause they had 2 smaller boats, that ride was terrifying. Our boat’s, ummm, “captain” stopped torebalance the boat after we hit a wave and shifted mid-air. Seriously, terrifying. Other than that, the Ruins were awesome andI’m glad we did that excursion, but I won’t do it again.

Cozumel – Went to Mr. Sanchos. We had ordered tickets ahead of time and itwas a good thing, our taxi driver said there were 7 boats in port and they wereprobably sold out. Good drinks, partyatmosphere and the menu food was good. Didn’t eat the buffet because people were actually grabbing stuff withtheir bare hands, ew. Plenty of entertaining people watching everywhere.

Smoke:

I know even mentioning the word is the third rail of CruiseCritic but I’d be remiss if I didn’t address it. It was truly only an issue in 2 places. The first was in the stateroom of one of theother couples we traveled with. Thatroom smelled like it was a smoking room. It was the first thing you’d smell when you entered and when they triedto open the balcony door to air it out, smoke from nearby balconies made itworse. They immediately alerted guestservices and to Carnival’s credit, they gave them ship board credit, theyshampooed the carpet, they sent an HVAC worker to try to work some magic and onthe next to last day when people left the ship in Cozumel they offered to movethem, but by then the hassle of moving for a day and a half just wasn’t worthit. Carnival really did try to make thesituation better but at the end of the day, they had to spend a week breathingsmoke at night because people in the room before them and their neighborsrefused to respect the rule of no smoking in staterooms or on balconies. The other place smoke was an issue was Deck5. It was pretty bad for the majority ofthat deck. The casino was thick withsmoke, which also meant that the Ocean Plaza area was really smoky. The Alchemy bar, in the far corner of theOcean Plaza, wasn’t too bad, but for some reason there was a sewage-like smellin the back of the Alchemy bar. I don’twant to spend too much time on smoke but just be aware, if you’re sensitive,avoid Deck 5, mid-ship.

Cheers:

We all did Cheers and there are a few things I’ll note. First, at the end of every dinner in the MDR,our server brought each of us a big, 1.5L, bottle of water. And we saw plenty of other people gettingthem as well. It was a really nicetouch. Also, only a few times I went toa bar with both my card and my wife’s. Inever had a problem getting a drink for her. I saw bartenders ask to have a cardholder present, but in those casesthe person was ordering for a group of people with 3+cards in hand or orderinga beer with one card and a shot with the other. No one in our group was ever cut off or hit our limit but a few times,late night, a server or bartender would drop off a drink and mention, “you’vegot one left”. That’s a really niceheads-up.

Debarkation:

A bit of a cluster and Carnival put one of our bags in zone25 instead of 5. Other than that it wasjust a sea of people getting off at once. CBP looked at our passports and said welcome back, that’s it. We had a Carnival transfer and we have TSAprecheck so ship to gate took almost 2 hours exactly, not bad.

 

I think that’s about everything, please feel free to let meknow if you have any questions. Otherwise, I’ll go back to wallowing in the post-cruise blues.

What a great review. We're sailing on the Dream in December for our anniversary. We booked the exact same cabin as you -8470!

Would you happen to have any pics of the cabin/balcony? I would love to see them if you do. Can't wait to set sail and reading your review makes me more anxious!

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YAY! Love seeing reviews of the Dream. I'll be aboard on the 18th of Feb. I hear they have made some improvements to the ship since we were last on it in Jan '17 so I am excited to come back. I've talked to a few people who seem concerned about getting off the ship in Cozumel due to all the warnings about crime and all. Did you feel pretty safe while you were there recently? We have an excursion through Carnival booked that morning, so I am hoping that all goes well as it did last year when we were there.

Thanks for your review! I can't wait to provide my own in a little over a month :)

What a great review. We're sailing on the Dream in December for our anniversary. We booked the exact same cabin as you -8470!

Would you happen to have any pics of the cabin/balcony? I would love to see them if you do. Can't wait to set sail and reading your review makes me more anxious!

 

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@JKAMAM, I didn't take any pics of the room, although I meant to. But the room was laid out like a standard balcony but (without actually measuring), it felt a few feet longer and at least as wide as the standard balcony our friends had. The ship was great and the views from the balcony were incredible! Have a great cruise!

YAY! Love seeing reviews of the Dream. I'll be aboard on the 18th of Feb. I hear they have made some improvements to the ship since we were last on it in Jan '17 so I am excited to come back. I've talked to a few people who seem concerned about getting off the ship in Cozumel due to all the warnings about crime and all. Did you feel pretty safe while you were there recently? We have an excursion through Carnival booked that morning, so I am hoping that all goes well as it did last year when we were there.

 

Thanks for your review! I can't wait to provide my own in a little over a month :)

We felt completely safe, though all we did was leave the port via taxi, enjoy Mr Sanchos and return via taxi. One couple did a cave exploring excursion through Carnival and the other couple went on an independently booked scuba lesson. They also had no issues whatsoever.

Lovely. We are booked to do a Beginners Scuba while in port and I am really looking forward to it, but have been concerned a lot with all the warnings about traveling to Mexico. Last year was fine and we were comfortable with our surroundings while we were there, so I am looking forward to returning :)

We were on the Freedom in Roatan the same day as the Dream and heard the Dream had a medical emergency that morning. Hopefully everybody is ok.

We were on the Freedom in Roatan the same day as the Dream and heard the Dream had a medical emergency that morning. Hopefully everybody is ok.

We had multiple medical emergencies on this cruise. The one you’re speaking of required us to divert for a stop at Cozumel on our second sea day.

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Thank you for taking the time to write and share your report.

Keith

Thx 4 the review. 47 days b4 I board her.

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Great review! Since I was part of the group travelling, I wanted to share some of my personal feedback--especially as a first time cruiser.

The service was really top notch. Every staff member we encountered was just lovely, patient, and accommodating.

The food at the Blue Iguana, Pizza shop, and Tandoor were my personal favorites for the trip. I only wish they offered the Blue Iguana and Tandoor for dinner options, as I might have been inclined to skip MDR for the other flavors.

We had booked the suite 7368, and while the room could have been 5 stars, we had the issues with smoke (Previous occupants were the cast of Mad Men?), and our neighbors smoked on their balcony throughout the trip. Staff did try to remediate the issue, and while the smell was not as strong on day 7 as it was on day 1, it was obvious when you entered the room each day.

We spent most days out on the Serenity deck, which was lovely though several of the lounge style love seats were near a loud mechanical area on the ship making it a little less serene. Drink service in this area was the slowest we encountered on the ship, and it seems to me this would be an area to add an additional server or two.

I bought the internet package premium daily rate for one day to check on updates for work. It was incredibly slow, and not at all worth getting unless you absolutely can't wait to send or receive an email. Not a big deal otherwise, and I freally enjoyed being "unplugged". The Carnival Hub app worked great, and was a wonderful way for us to be able to coordinate meal times and meet ups with the other travellers.

We had priority onboarding and offboarding with the suite, which was wonderful on day one, but our debarktion time was 6:45 which felt more like a punishment than a privlege ;) We leisurely left our cabin at 7:30 with no issues or delays and were at the airport by 8:30!

Excursions:

We booked a private fishing charter in Roatan. We used Jackson Marine Adventures http://www.carribeanroatan.com/fishing.htm

The downside is that Carnival prevents 3rd party agencies from picking up at their port. We had about a 10-15 min walk from the ship outside of the port gates to our meeting point. Our guide was waiting for us, and easy to spot with our name on a sign. Whether conditions were a less than ideal, but we were determined to make the best of it. We snorkeled for about 30 minutes, then went out for some deep sea fishing. Really fun experience, and nice to get away from the crowds.

Our Belize excursion (booked through Carnival) was really wonderful and informative. It requires some walking (a little over 1 mile), and optional climbing of the ruins. I am so glad that we did this excursion, but like has been mentioned was harrowing at the end (and we were on the other boat!). It's clear that this is a very compressed trip given the distance from ship and tendering process. However, we felt the bus ride back was travelling at a rate a speed not safe for the conditions (it was raining, and the roads are in rough shape). It was clear that Carnival does have an expectation with these contracted groups to get us back to the tender before last call, but at what cost?

In Cozumel we booked again through a third party for our intro to scuba lesson. Simple enough to walk and find a taxi, and is 10 minutes from port to Chanakabb. This was the highlight of our week, and I highly recommend it! Enrique at Chanakabb was our instructor and guide, and he was incredibly patient and ensured we were both comfortable before we set off. I felt safe at all times under his guidance, which allowed me to relax and take in all of the marine life and the sunken statues. This is a great way to see the animals in their natural reef habitat, and you should definitely do this instead of swimming in a pool with captive dolphins :)

I think we will definitely cruise again. But for the smoking issue, this would have been a 5 star vacation all around, I was impressed with the efficiency of it all! What a wonderful way to taste different cities in a short amount of time!

enjoyed the review.thanks

I was on this sailing. Great ship. Only issues it rained everyday and rough seas every night. Plus widespread flu outbreak. I heard so many people became sick on and when they got off the ship. :eek:

@ISHCruising- thanks so much for the review and the specifics regarding the excursions- appreciate it! I am booking my second cruise today- after my first.... hooked!

thanks for the great review. we have not been on carnival in 10 years so we are interested to see the differences from the other cruise lines. the smoke smell is alarming. Hope it does not happen to us since I cannot stand the smell of smoke

Hello! My wife, myself and 2 othercouples just got back from the Jan. 14th sailing on the Carnival Dream. Given how much I enjoy reading the reviews from others, I figured I'd take ashot at doing one myself. I'll try to cover everything that I usually findvaluable, but please don't hesitate to let me know if there are specificquestions you'd like answered. Before I say anything else, this was awonderful trip, no vacation is perfect, and I'll detail the few hiccups, butoverall it was awesome and all 6 of us agreed we'd love to do it again. Here we go:

 

Embarkation:

The port took about 15 minutes byUber to get to from our Airbnb in the French Quarter. We had the 11-1130check-in time. No one even looked at our check-in time until the veryend, after we had our Sail and Sign cards. At that point, if you were 'ontime' they put you in the next available open zone. If you were early,you were seated a few zones back. We were on the ship with our firstdrink in hand just after noon. So under 90 minutes from curb to a bar onthe lido deck. It seemed even faster, no complaints at all.

 

The Ship:

Spotless, or as close as one can reasonably hope for. Seriously our entire group noted throughout the week how well kept the shipwas. There were crewmembers constantly cleaning, polishing, scrubbing,etc. Every crewmember we encountered was polite andfriendly. The bar staff from poolside to lobby and everywhere else washelpful and worked hard. Some bars, suchas Red Frog’s Rum Bar and the Lobby Bar always seemed well staffed but others,such as the aft pool bar and the Alchemy Bar always seemed a bitunderstaffed.

 

 

Food:

We did the Sea day Brunch, BlueIguana's breakfast burritos and the buffet for breakfast. The brunch wasgreat, although I was a bit too hungover to enjoy the banter of ourtablemates . The breakfast burritos wereoutstanding! We waited until our next to last full day to try them andthat's one of my few regrets of the cruise. The buffet breakfast wasenjoyable, nothing too memorable but I was neverdisappointed.

For lunch I tried, in order of what I liked; theMongolian Wok (3 times), Guys burgers (once), Tandoori (twice), Pig and AnchorBBQ. We also ate off the ship in two of our ports (I know that's morethan 7 lunches but we're on vacation, why not have multiple lunches somedays?). The rest of our group tried Pasta Bella and they said it wasfine, but just fine. That's what I thought about Pig and Anchor, thesides were good, the meats were meh and being outside on the Lanai, everythingwas cool if not cold by the time you started eating. The line for theMongolian Wok was silly, it usually took 15-20 minutes, but it was worth thewait. Plus it was cool seeing those guys work. It's reallyimpressive to watch. For dinner, we ate in the main dining room all butone night.

We had YTD and after the first night we requested the serverwe had that first night every single evening. Big shout out to Arfirst,she's an awesome server! For those wondering, our group of 6, was rarelythere for over 90 minutes, and we were in no rush at all. We ordered tonsof food, usually 3 or 4 courses plus dessert and some items for the table toshare. Our only gripe about the MDR service was that instead of bringingthe food one course at a time, each person got 2 or 3 items all at once, thenentrees. It's a minor thing and we attributed it to 2 things; 1- tryingto be efficient and accommodate the general expectation that people want to getin and out, 2 - the team serving us had 4 tables of 6-10 people. 25-35people is a lot of people for one team of servers to wait on so that was oneway to make it more manageable.

The one night we didn't eat in the diningroom we ate in the Steakhouse. Our group was divided on the experience,some saying it was a highlight but I found it disappointing. The fooditself was better than the MDR, but not significantly. Most of mydisappointment came from the service. It says clearly on the menu thatadditional entrees will require an additional charge, what it doesn't say butour server curtly told us, you are limited to one app and one salad (he waswilling to allow us to skip a salad and get a second app). We were tryingto order one of everything, but an app, a soup and a salad was our originalplan, and this was unexpected as I've never been to a specialty restaurant thatwas so strict. Also, when they sent someone in our party the wrong app,they argued with her before replacing it. Finally, they made a big dealabout how many bottles of water they were opening, which was particularlystrange since they asked at the beginning if all 6 of us had the Cheers package(we did). Overall, not a bad experience but just not the outstanding onewe've come to expect from the specialty restaurants.

 

Stateroom:

My wife and I had an Aft balcony ondeck 8 (8470), and we loved it. It seemed bigger than a standard balconyand the Aft view is one that I love. Our room steward, Ari, was verygood, but clearly overworked. He had every room on the port side of the shipfrom the aft elevators back to ours. We had twice a day service and henever complained and always got to our room but we could tell he stretched bythe number of rooms. Our room was clean from the moment we were on theship until we left and have no complaints other than it was a touch warmer thanwe like at night, even with the curtains shut.

 

Shows:

We went to a handful and I will sayFlick is one of the coolest main theater shows that I’ve ever seen. Interesting story and incredible specialeffects; really, really worth seeing. Wesaw multiple comedians and they were ok, except for Manny Olivera. You’re either going to love him or beappalled. I loved him, he’s raunchy andspends half of his set out in the crowd joking with (or at) people. He never gets too person or spends too muchtime on someone that it becomes uncomfortable but I could easily see someonebeing upset with his show. Not me, I sawall 3 of his 18+ plus shows.

 

Ports:

Roatan – We did the Carnival JungleATV and beach break tour. It rained thatmorning and everything was muddy, perfect for ATV-ing. We spent about 90 minutes on the ATVs andthen 2 hours at a nearby beach. Thebeach is at a resort that is clearly in the process of being redone but it wasa really fun excursion.

Belize – We did the Carnival LamaniRuins and Scenic River Boat Tour. Veryglad we did this through Carnival as our tour ran over, along with a fewothers, so we were on the final tender which they held for us. The tour was fun but we spent about 2 hourstotal on buses and the river boat portion wasn’t a scenic tour. It was 20 minutes on a speed boat flying fromwhere the bus drops you off to the ruins. The ride there was fun and wild, the ride back our group had to splitbecause they had 2 smaller boats, that ride was terrifying. Our boat’s, ummm, “captain” stopped torebalance the boat after we hit a wave and shifted mid-air. Seriously, terrifying. Other than that, the Ruins were awesome andI’m glad we did that excursion, but I won’t do it again.

Cozumel – Went to Mr. Sanchos. We had ordered tickets ahead of time and itwas a good thing, our taxi driver said there were 7 boats in port and they wereprobably sold out. Good drinks, partyatmosphere and the menu food was good. Didn’t eat the buffet because people were actually grabbing stuff withtheir bare hands, ew. Plenty of entertaining people watching everywhere.

 

Smoke:

I know even mentioning the word is the third rail of CruiseCritic but I’d be remiss if I didn’t address it. It was truly only an issue in 2 places. The first was in the stateroom of one of theother couples we traveled with. Thatroom smelled like it was a smoking room. It was the first thing you’d smell when you entered and when they triedto open the balcony door to air it out, smoke from nearby balconies made itworse. They immediately alerted guestservices and to Carnival’s credit, they gave them ship board credit, theyshampooed the carpet, they sent an HVAC worker to try to work some magic and onthe next to last day when people left the ship in Cozumel they offered to movethem, but by then the hassle of moving for a day and a half just wasn’t worthit. Carnival really did try to make thesituation better but at the end of the day, they had to spend a week breathingsmoke at night because people in the room before them and their neighborsrefused to respect the rule of no smoking in staterooms or on balconies. The other place smoke was an issue was Deck5. It was pretty bad for the majority ofthat deck. The casino was thick withsmoke, which also meant that the Ocean Plaza area was really smoky. The Alchemy bar, in the far corner of theOcean Plaza, wasn’t too bad, but for some reason there was a sewage-like smellin the back of the Alchemy bar. I don’twant to spend too much time on smoke but just be aware, if you’re sensitive,avoid Deck 5, mid-ship.

 

Cheers:

We all did Cheers and there are a few things I’ll note. First, at the end of every dinner in the MDR,our server brought each of us a big, 1.5L, bottle of water. And we saw plenty of other people gettingthem as well. It was a really nicetouch. Also, only a few times I went toa bar with both my card and my wife’s. Inever had a problem getting a drink for her. I saw bartenders ask to have a cardholder present, but in those casesthe person was ordering for a group of people with 3+cards in hand or orderinga beer with one card and a shot with the other. No one in our group was ever cut off or hit our limit but a few times,late night, a server or bartender would drop off a drink and mention, “you’vegot one left”. That’s a really niceheads-up.

 

Debarkation:

A bit of a cluster and Carnival put one of our bags in zone25 instead of 5. Other than that it wasjust a sea of people getting off at once. CBP looked at our passports and said welcome back, that’s it. We had a Carnival transfer and we have TSAprecheck so ship to gate took almost 2 hours exactly, not bad.

 

 

 

I think that’s about everything, please feel free to let meknow if you have any questions. Otherwise, I’ll go back to wallowing in the post-cruise blues.

Thank you for the review, we leave in 6 days! I wanted to know how many and which nights are the formal nights?

Thank you for the review, we leave in 6 days! I wanted to know how many and which nights are the formal nights?

We were on the January 21st sailing. First formal night was the first sea day, Monday. Second formal night was Friday.